‘Halloween’ Had the Biggest Opening Weekend in Slasher Movie History

The new Halloweenabsolutely slaughtered its competition at the weekend box office — and pretty much every other slasher film in history. Move over, Freddy Krueger. Take a seat, Jason. Michael Myers is the new slasher box-office champ.

Bowing with an incredible $77.5 million gave the new Halloween — directed by David Gordon Green and featuring the franchise’s original star, Jamie Lee Curtis — the biggest opening weekend in the history of the slasher genre. (The previous champ was the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, which grossed $40.7 million in its first three days in theaters.)

Here’s the weekend’s full box-office chart:

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

Total

1

Halloween

$77,501,000

$19,730

$77,501,000

2

A Star Is Born

$19,300,000 (-32%)

$4,969

$126,376,246

3

Venom

$18,105,000 (-48%)

$4,658

$171,125,095

4

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

$9,715,000 (-38%)

$2,759

$28,804,812

5

First Man

$8,565,000 (-46%)

$2,353

$29,999,050

6

The Hate U Give

$7,500,000 (+331%)

$3,257

$10,641,873

7

Smallfoot

$6,615,000 (-27%)

$2,182

$66,366,035

8

Night School

$5,000,000 (-35%)

$2,178

$66,906,825

9

Bad Times at the El Royale

$3,300,000 (-53%)

$1,175

$13.341,801

10

The Old Man & the Gun

$2,050,000 (+123%)

$2,556

$4,200,856

Halloween also had the second-biggest opening for any October film ever, behind Venom from just three weeks ago. And it was the second-biggest opening ever for an R-rated horror film of any kind — slasher, splatter, psychological horror, killer clowns, what have you — behind only the $123 million that It made last October.

When it comes to horror movies led by women, it broke a couple more records:

And here’s another record for you: It’s also the biggest opening weekend ever for its producers, the prolific and economical horror specialists at Blumhouse Productions. Speaking of economical: The new Halloween reportedly cost just $10 million to make, which means even after marketing costs, the movie is already close to turning a profit, if it hasn’t already. Clearly the gambit to wipe the franchise’s slate clean and return the series back to its roots — with Curtis once again squaring off with Michael Myers — was an idea that appealed to audiences. How long before Freddy and Jason follow suit?